‘Both sides have to work together.’ Macon sheriff & school police address youth crime

What happens in the neighborhoods inevitably reflects in the classrooms, and vice versa, Bibb County School District Campus Police Chief Curtis Adams says.

The reciprocal bond, combined with a desire to implement local changes, prompted Adams to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to work together to identify and prevent crime in the school system and community.

“I understand the importance of both entities,” he said. “It takes a village, like they say. Even with policing, it takes all of us to continue to make impacts in those children’s lives, and then the families, and then the communities.”

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said collaboration with the school police is nothing new, but Chief Adams is coming in to strengthen the bond and take it to another level.

Macon had 70 homicides in 2022 amid a surge in violence, breaking a previous record of 54 homicides from the prior year. More than a dozen of the victims were teenagers, WMAZ13 previously reported.

Mayor Lester Miller announced last month a 40% decrease in homicides compared to 2022 with 40. Correspondingly, Davis confirmed a significant decrease in the number of youth homicides as well.

To sustain this accomplishment, the agencies will prioritize effective community policing in order to ensure safe spaces for students to learn, instructors to educate and community members to thrive together.

“Both sides have to work together,” Adams said. “It’s not going to be me fixing it on my side, and then [the children] go into the community and then they hate the police, or vice versa.”

WHAT WORKING TOGETHER LOOKS LIKE

The School District and Sheriff’s Office’s collaborative framework will strategize community policing, which involves community engagement and proactive crime-fighting measures, Adams said.

“Most of the time, we’re just being reactive to everything,” he said. “That shouldn’t be the case. We should really be making impacts [by] trying to go into the communities and building partnerships.”

This includes Macon law enforcement personnel sharing information, such as gang intelligence, in real time to keep each other informed and maintain an advantage in preventing crime before it escalates, Adams said.

Campus police are in a unique position to identify and interact with students who are causing problems in the community, as well as working with the Sheriff’s Department to put a stop to it, Davis said.

“It’s a multi-faceted way to solve our cases,” he added.

Davis said while youth violence has decreased, deputies are currently witnessing a high number of youths engaging in auto theft and firearm possession.

The Sheriff’s Office and campus police attended emergency response and scenario-based training sessions to discuss how the two can efficiently mitigate community-school crises. Davis said officers did not receive as much co-trainings prior to Adam’s induction.

“I want to make sure we’re all on the same page with how we would respond. That makes it more streamlined on making everything safe for everyone,” Adams said.

IMPACTING CHILDREN’S LIVES

Another important aspect of the collaboration’s efforts of crime prevention is highlighting at-risk youths’ value and working with them to recognize it for themselves, Adams said.

“It’s BSO and my officers coming together to say, ‘How can we help this child?’ I don’t believe in just throwing kids away. It’s always something that we can do,” he said.

Adams, who grew up in Chicago’s inner city crime environment and provided therapeutic counseling to at-risk youth, said he has seen youth crime from a variety of angles.

He wants to highlight all aspects of children’s lives by addressing their mental health and introducing his officers to restorative practices.

“There are so many different dynamics to mental health, and a lot of our children that live in some areas have post traumatic stress disorders but don’t know it,” Adams said. “Most of the time those kids don’t have an outlet or people to talk to.”

June O’Neal, executive director of the Mentors Project in Macon-Bibb, agrees that the county’s youth require guidance to keep on track.

“We don’t have nearly enough male mentors,” she said. “We have about 100 mentors, and we need about 100 more because we desperately need men to be involved in our young men’s lives.”

Adams said he wants the collaboration to establish further youth outreach initiatives and work with partners who are dedicated to making a difference in children’s lives.

Davis added that deputies will be more interactive on school campuses to help build a trusting relationship between students and law enforcement.

“We’re looking forward to more activities with the school system,” the sheriff said. “We had a good relationship in the past, but I think there’s always ways to do even more than what we have been doing.”

This story was originally published February 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM.